The cost of insulin, there and here

National Post, 2 August 2019

In the matter of drugs, there are no free markets and no free trade. There is only wise regulation and foolish regulation.

My parish borders the United States, so I know well the dynamics of cross-border shopping. The arguments go both ways, leading to some confusion about the role of markets.

Canada regulates dairy supply so our milk is more expensive, hence mothers slip across the border to shop at American grocery stores to buy milk for their children.

Canada regulates pharmaceutical prices, so our drugs are cheaper, hence mothers slip across the border to shop at Canadian pharmacies to buy insulin for their children.

So does regulation make things more or less expensive? Is it better to have free markets or not?

The recent border visit by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, running for president since 2015, to accompany families buying insulin — $340 in the U.S., $34 in Canada — highlighted the issue. The fact that Sanders describes himself, with various modifications, as a socialist, led easily enough to the conclusion: Canada regulates drug prices, which is vaguely socialist, and the U.S. does not, which is the market way. Hence socialism, regarding insulin at least, is the superior system for consumers.

The response is that regulatory socialism is bad for producers, so we get fewer drugs than we ought to, and patients are on the whole worse off for the government intervention.

Which is it? Neither really.

Continue reading at the National Post:
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/raymond-de-souza-the-cost-of-insulin-there-and-here